Tag Archives: Clippers’ owner comments

The new NBA commissioner acted swiftly and strongly in as tough a position as any sports commissioner has been in recently.

He had to deal with the worst kind of racist rant and do it quickly (basically 3 days) before the next game was played, all the while dealing with incredible emotion and complex legal issues.

Adam Silver did well.

Here is a little quickie reaction:

1. Silver was wildly impressive in the news conference taking questions. Strong. Succinct. Did not ramble or stutter. Answered questions with short factual bits. Did not smile, smirk or make light talk. No sarcasm (as his predecessor David Stern liked to do). Again, very strong performance.

2. The lifetime ban and strong effort to remove Donald Sterling from ownership of the franchise should calm the issue. Silver did as much as he could legally do.

3. As noted in a Tweet below, when Sterling finally sells team his return on investment will be rather large.

4. Some NBA owners may be worried about the precedent such extreme action sets, but this case was so beyond the pale that such concerns don’t seem valid.

5. Best Silver moment: When asked about the legitimacy of taking action based on comments made in private, Silver noted that the words are “public now”. Strong.

The NBA will announce today what it intends to do to punish Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling for his racist remarks. You wonder, among the long list of possible sanctions, if the NBA’s pooh-bahs have thought about pulling a Costanza? Remember … read more

The NBA found itself caught up in a snarly situation over the weekend when TMZ released an audio record apparently of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling making racist comments. The news put the NBA and the sports world in … read more